1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to data transmission over a transmission medium, such as a power bus or digital data bus of a system, between devices of the system such as the transmission of data between at least one new device added to an airframe and other devices of the airframe.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is known that the power bus of a system, such as a vehicle, may be used to transmit information between components of the system by transmitting a modulated carrier over the bus, which contains information to be transmitted between the components. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,438,519, 4,641,322 and 6,127,939.
FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art connector 200 used in airframes. The connector 200 has a female connector 202, which is connected to a power bus of the airframe and a male connector 204 which is connected to a device (not illustrated) in the airframe, such as avionics, line replaceable units (LRUs) or munitions. The connector 200 may be a MIL-STD-1553 connector or a MIL-STD-1760. Electrical power may be provided to the device through the mated connectors 202 and 204.
The male connector 204 has a series of pins 207 which are connected to conductors (not illustrated) which enter through back plane 206 which is part of a device connector. The pins 207 project from an insulative insert 208, which is held in metallic ring 209. The insert may be rubberized and flexible. The insert 208 has a series of through holes 210 which provide a pass through for conductors (not illustrated), which do not mate with the sockets 213 of the female connector 202.
The female connector 202 also has a rubberized insulative insert 211 held in a metallic ring 212. The insulative insert 211 has the sockets 213 aligned with and receiving the pins 207. However, the number of sockets 213 may be larger in number than the number of pins. The sockets 213, which receive one of the pins 207, contain a metallic receptacle (not illustrated) electrically contacting the pin. The sockets 213 are electrically connected to conductors (not illustrated) extending out of the back side and individually are contained in the wiring bundle 214. Through holes 216 are aligned with through holes 210 of the male connector to complete the pass through of conductors (not illustrated).
The retrofitting of an aircraft to add new equipment, LRUs and/or munitions, including new wiring, is a complex process, which can require many months of modification time and involve substantial expense. When new digital devices are added to after market military or commercial aircraft, the addition thereof typically requires new bus wiring or an expanded load on the already heavily loaded aircraft wiring cockpit applications. New devices, that may only require minutes to install, often require an entire airframe to be nearly disassembled to allow new wiring runs to the new devices. Furthermore, the new wiring adds weight to the aircraft and takes up space which is always disadvantageous in any airframe design and is especially so with high performance airframes in which maneuverability is important.
Furthermore, new equipment, such as LRUs or munitions, which are retrofitted to an airframe often require high bandwidth data links between the new equipment to points in the airframe where control or monitoring is performed. High bandwidth communications between state of the art digital equipments are necessary.